This old Fender Malibu was damaged in a fire. The nut was melted and finish charred from the flames, and the back was loose because the guitar was filled with water from the sprinklers. I was able to clean the body with alcohol and polish, refinished the neck, new tuners, fret dots. Before and after:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A very rare 1934 Martin tenor ukulele, model O-17 T, with original case. Emma Figaro played it on the Vaudeville stage for many years. I had to re-glue the bridge and carefully clean and polish. The owner had it appraised at $10,000, so I handled with care!

My friend Johnny Rushmore has started making custom guitars out of one piece of wood ... neck, body, headstock all cut and carved out of one big board. They sustain forever. I put in the frets on this Walnut one, yet to be finished. I've posted some YouTube videos of the fret leveling process on this guitar, and of the amazing J Rushmore playing his creation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA0Y0ixpIJU﻿

Here's a sitar that broke when it fell off the wall. The neck broke and the gourd had a sizable dent in it. I was able to repair the dent by fishing a guitar string through the neck pocket and pulling the pieces into place using a guitar tuner.

This 1947 Gibson belonged to Jenkins Bell Ruscoe of the Mississippi Valley Boys. It spent many years in an attic in North Carolina, and the heat and humidity damaged the glue bonds. Eight of the internal braces came completely off, and 2 more were loose. This top brace was beyond my reach so I used powerful neodymium magnets to first locate it in position then hold it in place while I put the clamps on.

A clamp set up for gluing a broken headstock. The white stuff is called "Friendly Plastic". It softens in boiling water so I can shape it to fit odd angles to get the right clamping pressure. Underneath the neck is a jig I made that uses a mini jack to push the break closed:

After pulling the frets and cleaning the slots I put in strips of maple veneer. I thinned the strips to size by tapping on them with a hammer to compress the wood. With the maple compressed the neck will be as stiff as it was with metal frets. After the strips were fit I glued them in place with thinned shellac: